L.A. police find abducted girl, 10, after 12 hours

Mar. 28, 2013
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A vehicle is dusted for prints in the driveway of a home on the 8800 block of Oakdale Avenue near Nordhoff Street Wednesday, in Northridge, Calif., where a 10-year-old girl disappeared during the night. / AP Photo/Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times

by William M. Welch, USA TODAY

by William M. Welch, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES -- Police said they were seeking two men believed involved in the abduction Wednesday of a 10-year-old girl who disappeared from her home overnight and was found dazed and bruised 12 hours later.

Los Angeles police Capt. William Hayes told reporters Wednesday night that after talking to the girl at a hospital, police began seeking two men, one of whom may be about 18 years old. He had no further description.

The girl told investigators that she did not know the men, and that they held her for a time at an abandoned house, Hayes said. She was dropped off before 3 p.m. PT near a hospital about 6 miles from her home, he said.

"I've got a girl who was abducted. I don't know why,'' Hayes said.

Police and agents with the FBI's child abduction unit conducted a door-to-door search for the girl within a 2-mile radius of her home in the Northridge section earlier Wednesday morning, FBI agent Tim Delaney said.

Police Capt. Kris Pitcher said officers found her at a strip mall in the Woodland Hills section of the San Fernando Valley.

Video shot from a KCAL-TV news helicopter showed the red-haired girl talking with police outside a Starbucks and later walking to an ambulance and climbing in before being driven to a nearby hospital. She was barefoot, wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

"She is in shock right now,'' Pitcher said. "She's talking, she's conversing with the officers. ... She's got some cuts and abrasions and bruises.''

The girl was identified by name by police during the search, but police requested her name not be used after she was found.

Pitcher said she was receiving medical treatment and talking with investigators who were trying to determine how she left the house, how she spent the nearly 12 hours before she was found, and who was involved.

Pitcher later said that based on statements from the girl, police were searching for possible evidence at other locations in the San Fernando Valley area of the city.

Pitcher said the girl was last seen by her mother at 1 a.m. PT Wednesday in her bedroom. He said the mother was awakened and found her missing from her bedroom and after a quick search called police at 3:45 a.m.

He said police were alarmed because of the circumstances of her disappearance and her young age. He said there were no indications she was a runaway or had troubles at home.

Officers found her about 2:50 p.m. after an unknown citizen saw her, recognized her from news reports and pointed her to nearby police officers, he said.

"We don't know who she was dropped off by,'' Pitcher said. "We are turning over every stone we can to catch up with this individual.''